Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A gotta have, no? I strolled thru this site & can't link it from their site -- unless one of you tech-savvy folks can. Suffice saying, we all need our mulled or -- we ain't gonna make a long, George Washington, Valley Forge winter here in the Am. Redoubt.
Coming from a temperate household, I can't help you here.
A cold beer infrequently, during a hot summer spell, is about all I can bother with. Wine - mulled or not - is never on my menu (nor anything harder...).
Wine always tasted like fruit flavored kerosene to me, so can't help you.
I do like cold beer once in a while, or a hard cider after a long day in the forge, but those are pretty infrequent. I haven't finished off the last 6 pack I bought in July.
For colds though, I do like hot buttered rum. I prefer dark rum, then add some boiling water, brown sugar and a little pat of butter.
Really clears the sinuses
For colds though, I do like hot buttered rum. I prefer dark rum, then add some boiling water, brown sugar and a little pat of butter. Really clears the sinuses
Wine always tasted like fruit flavored kerosene to me, so can't help you.
"Fruit flavored kerosene" would be a description I might apply to a wine that was only recently bottled, and hadn't been aged properly. I've also been known to describe a young, fruited/spiced mead as tasting like "rocket fuel". It's been rare for me to encounter a wine that actually tasted like fruit, although my genuine wine 'coolers'* with real fruit added during the ferment come close.
There is a huge variety of wines available, from your cheap Boone's Farm or Mad Dog, to reds and whites where within each category there are so many kinds there is almost no way you can't find something that you will like, all the way to rather expensive German Riesling Eiswein** (Ice Wine, not to be mistaken for the deceptively labeled 'iced' wine that you may see).
I am much less familiar with whites than reds, with the exception of Eiswein, but there is a great range in the reds and they will taste differently when paired with food than they do alone. I typically don't drink wine by itself, only with particular foods where the pairing enhances the flavor of both.
I have to say, that given that I don't usually drink wine by itself, I'm also not a fan of mulled wine. I've had it occasionally, but a spiced mead or cider is better, and my preference generally runs to cider for this. Most spiced ales/beer are also not something I care for, don't do that to good beer.
*(I start with a decent red grape juice, then add about 4lbs/gal of whole, crushed fruit- usually strawberries and/or raspberries and maybe some citrus- to the must after fermentation has begun. I use a less alcohol-tolerant yeast in order that some residual sweetness will remain. I add a little extra sugar at bottling time, which ferments in the bottle for natural carbonation.)
**(Producing a true Eiswein is tricky, and depends on the weather- the grapes must remain on the vine until the first frost, then picked and pressed *immediately*, before the grapes can thaw. There is typically only a very short window of opportunity for this, sometimes only a few hours, so the harvest is extremely limited. If the sun comes up before the harvest can be completed, the grapes are ruined. Quality depends greatly on the length of time the grapes remain on the vine and the depth of the frost, in addition to the nature of the soil in which the grapes are grown and the weather during the growing season. I've paid as much as $125 for a 12oz bottle of a superb German Riesling Eiswein. If you have money to burn this can be an exceptional treat.)
"Fruit flavored kerosene" would be a description I might apply to a wine that was only recently bottled, and hadn't been aged properly. I've also been known to describe a young, fruited/spiced mead as tasting like "rocket fuel". It's been rare for me to encounter a wine that actually tasted like fruit, although my genuine wine 'coolers'* with real fruit added during the ferment come close.
There is a huge variety of wines available, from your cheap Boone's Farm or Mad Dog, to reds and whites where within each category there are so many kinds there is almost no way you can't find something that you will like, all the way to rather expensive German Riesling Eiswein** (Ice Wine, not to be mistaken for the deceptively labeled 'iced' wine that you may see).
I am much less familiar with whites than reds, with the exception of Eiswein, but there is a great range in the reds and they will taste differently when paired with food than they do alone. I typically don't drink wine by itself, only with particular foods where the pairing enhances the flavor of both.
I have to say, that given that I don't usually drink wine by itself, I'm also not a fan of mulled wine. I've had it occasionally, but a spiced mead or cider is better, and my preference generally runs to cider for this. Most spiced ales/beer are also not something I care for, don't do that to good beer.
*(I start with a decent red grape juice, then add about 4lbs/gal of whole, crushed fruit- usually strawberries and/or raspberries and maybe some citrus- to the must after fermentation has begun. I use a less alcohol-tolerant yeast in order that some residual sweetness will remain. I add a little extra sugar at bottling time, which ferments in the bottle for natural carbonation.)
**(Producing a true Eiswein is tricky, and depends on the weather- the grapes must remain on the vine until the first frost, then picked and pressed *immediately*, before the grapes can thaw. There is typically only a very short window of opportunity for this, sometimes only a few hours, so the harvest is extremely limited. If the sun comes up before the harvest can be completed, the grapes are ruined. Quality depends greatly on the length of time the grapes remain on the vine and the depth of the frost, in addition to the nature of the soil in which the grapes are grown and the weather during the growing season. I've paid as much as $125 for a 12oz bottle of a superb German Riesling Eiswein. If you have money to burn this can be an exceptional treat.)
WOW!
If this need be all I need do re prepping -- I'd be set, haha.
But thx much for this recipe & advice. It may go beyond my ability time-wise but surely sounds good, & many here may benefit if they've got more squared away than I thus far. Thx again a ton, Zy.
If this need be all I need do re prepping -- I'd be set, haha.
But thx much for this recipe & advice. It may go beyond my ability time-wise but surely sounds good, & many here may benefit if they've got more squared away than I thus far. Thx again a ton, Zy.
Actually, making your own beer, wine and mead doesn't have to take up a whole lot of your time, as in labor. Wine can be much less time consuming as the grape juice usually comes pre-pasteurized.
Beer made from dry or liquid malt syrup takes longer, as the mixture must be boiled (and watched very carefully) with the hops, then cooled to a temp low enough that it won't kill the yeast when you pitch it in.
Mead depends on whether the particular recipe you want to use calls for heating, pasteurizing or boiling, with whatever additions you want to make (spices, fruit, etc).
Cider for hard cider should also be pasteurized to kill of wild yeasts, unless you *want* the flavor profile of the wild yeasts. Otherwise, cool and pitch the yeast with your desired flavor profile.
Cooling your wort or must can take a while (depending on volume) if you don't have a wort chiller- which is a coil of copper tubing with an inlet and outlet that you immerse in your kettle and run cold water through. (I set the pot in the sink, over the drain, and run the cold water into the sink so that the pot is surrounded. When the sink is nearly full, I slide a knife blade under the pot to lift the edge slightly and allow some water to drain, adjust until the amount of water draining equals the amount of fresh, cold water coming in from the tap. This significantly decreases cooling time compared to just letting the pot sit, but takes some of your time to stir and keep the wort circulating.)
After you add (pitch) the yeast, you just leave it sit until the yeast is done 'working'. An airlock on top of your fermenter usually works well- when it stops bubbling, and hasn't bubbled for three days, it's probably done. (Mead is a slightly different animal, sometimes it can get 'stuck', meaning that fermentation stops for a while, then it may restart- if you bottle it before fermentation has finished you may get exploding 'bottle bombs'.)
Depending on what you are making, you may either be bottling right then, which does take some time (especially sanitizing the bottles) but with two people working together it can go fairly quickly, with one filling and one operating the capper/corker. Then you just let it age and don't touch it again until it;s ready to drink.
Some recipes may call for 'racking' your unfinished product to a secondary fermenter and letting it continue to work or age for a while longer before bottling.
There are some other details that I've left out for brevity, in fact, books could be written...and have been...get some of these if you think you might want to give it a try. (PM me and I'll give you some authors and titles that are good.)
I had some Gluhwein (mulled wine) at a Christmas Market in Germany on a cold December night. I really did not like it other than that is warmed me up inside since it was very cold that night. I could tell that all the locals really enjoyed it. For me, the best part was just chatting with folks while drinking the gluhwein.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
